Big Springs shooter sentenced to prison

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 4:58 PMJun 26, 2013 at 5:02 PM

By Ami RidlingDaily News Staff Writer

YREKA – The man arrested in February for discharging a firearm multiple times at an occupied vehicle was sentenced in the Siskiyou County Superior Court on Tuesday to the upper term of four years in state prison.

In May, Luc Owen Niles, 33, of Antioch, Calif., entered a guilty plea to one count of assault with a firearm on a person and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. In exchange for his guilty plea, the district attorney’s office offered him a four-year prison term. Superior Court Judge Karen Dixon stated that for a portion of the sentence, Niles will be eligible for Post Release Community Supervision.

Niles was initially charged with attempted murder, making criminal threats, shooting at an inhabited dwelling/vehicle, vandalism, assault with a deadly weapon, illegal possession of ammunition and a series of special allegations pertaining to the nature of the crime. These were in addition to the two charges he pleaded to.

According to reports from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department, on Feb. 23, law enforcement received a report from a 37-year-old Big Springs resident that his neighbor had discharged a firearm at him while he was in his vehicle.

The investigation revealed that Niles had shot at the victim’s vehicle multiple times. The victim was not struck by the bullets, and he did not require medical attention. Niles was apprehended and booked in the Siskiyou County Jail, where he was held on $500,000 bail during his court proceedings.

According to Martha Aker, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted this case, Niles would have faced a maximum sentence of 10 years and 8 months in state prison if he had stood trial and been found guilty of all the charges.